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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Men and Masculinity in Person-Centered Therapy

As far as the issues surrounding men and masculinity in person-centered therapy, as Gillon (2008) claims, more research is necessary , although it does seem important to understand, or at least be open to some of the basic gender issues in counseling as well as particular approaches that work best in the client's unique cultural context.Certainly, as you mentioned, if the client cannot feel comfortable in the client/counselor relationship, I hardly think it could be therapeutic.I did find Gillon's (2008) article interesting, especially how he found cognitive-behavioral therapy more effective than other approaches for men.

I did find these thoughts of Gillon (2008) significant:

Hence it might be the case that retaining a person-centered stance, as presently conceived,

is of utmost importance in providing a normalized, enabling space for male clients that

may otherwise be unavailable. In this respect, person-centered therapy may be regarded as

a political act, a mechanism for creating new masculinities with men suffering from the oppressive effects of a damaging, yet powerful, formulation of masculinity.